Arkansas City’s RV Park Fails Perc Test

The Beaver, Ark., city council is looking at alternatives to what it had hoped would be fertile ground for a septic drain field in the 32-site RV park after the town attorney reported land in the park failed a “perc” (percolation) test.

Burdened with extremely high costs of dumping the RV park’s five sewage holding tanks during the camping season, the town voted in March to shut down flush toilets and showers and offer only portable toilets, according to the Lovely County Citizen, Eureka Springs, Ark.

After a visit in April from the Arkansas Health Department’s Northwest Regional on-site specialist Sam Dunn, who suggested there might be percable ground in the park for a drain field, officials had a spark of hope.

Based on Dunn’s recommendation, the town hired a licensed septic designer to test the soil, but the test failed.

“The designer dug two test trenches and determined it was not suitable because of the morphology of the site,” Hill said at Monday night’s council meeting.

Even had it passed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the park, would have had to give approval, since the park sits on Table Rock Lake. They declined to do so, Hill said. They sent a letter saying any septic drain field would have to be located above their take line of 936 feet. No sites inside the park qualified.

In May, Hill and Dunn walked private land adjoining the park to try to find property markers. They found a marker monument, and the 936-foot line falls on a fence line,

The town may have other options: purchase an easement or buy a small section of land outright from either of two property owners with land close by.

Hill said the project would need a 240-foot run for the sewage tanks and a gravity-fed system. Officials made plans to meet with one property owner on Wednesday. The other property owner will also be approached.